The flush mounted ceiling air cleaner of the present invention is an improvement of existing flush mounted ceiling air cleaners.
Flush mounted ceiling air cleaners are typically designed to fit inside the supporting bars of a suspended ceiling framework. The frame work consists of these supporting T bars that intersect in a uniform pattern every 24" in one direction, and every 24" or 48" in a direction perpendicular to the first. The resultant open space available between each bar to place a flush mounted ceiling air cleaner is either 233/4".times.233/4" or 233/4".times.473/4". Prior to the present invention, flush mounted ceiling air cleaners were limited to accepting dirty air, cleaning this air, and discharging this same air within the confines of either a 2 ft..times.2 ft. or 2 ft..times.4 ft. ceiling grid opening. This resulted in inadequate circulation of the cleaned air into the remote areas of the room in which it operated. The effect of this inadequate circulation was that clean air discharged by the air cleaner reentered the unit at the intake of the air cleaner creating a "short circuiting" effect of the clean air. This resulted in clean air becoming localized in the immediate vicinity of the air cleaner.
The present invention eliminates this problem by locating the supply of clean air at a location(s) remote to the location of the intake of dirty air. This is accomplished by the use of a flexible insulated hose which connects the remote clean air supply grill to the main cabinet which receives and cleans the dirty air. By the use of a remote supply grill(s), air patterns can be established in a room which will allow for optimum cleaning of the air within the room and increase the overall cleaning efficiency of the air cleaner by allowing a higher percentage of dirty air to enter the unit for cleaning.
By separating the supply grill(s) from the return grill with at least 12 ft. of flexible hose, air patterns can be established that meet the user's specific requirements. Filtered air can be introduced at any point in the room without having to locate the main body of the air cleaner at that point. By the use of multiple supply grills and hoses, several points in a given area can be directly supplied with filtered air simultaneously.
An additional advantage is gained by separating the supply grill from the return grill. The logarithmic addition of noise as measured in decibels is reduced. When the supply and return grills are located within the same T-bar ceiling grid, air noise generated by both grills combine to create a decibel level greater than that created by each separate grill. The result of separating the supply and return grills will reduce the total decibel level at any one location in the room.
By the use of flexible insulated hose, air noise generated by the blower wheel and motor is attenuated by the absorption of this noise by the insulated hose before it reaches the supply grill. Without the insulated flex hose, blower noise is transmitted directly into the room.
By the use of flexible insulated hose in combination with multiple supply grills, separate rooms may be supplied with filtered air without having to locate the main body of the air cleaner in each room. This reduces the number of separate air cleaners required to effectively clean a multi-room facility.
The present invention allows the user to remove and replace filters from the room below the unit. The primary filters are retained independently of the prefilter allowing frequent removal of the prefilter without having to remove the primary filters.